RLA Pastor's blog

In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership, John Maxwell writes about the law of the “BIG MO.” He’s talking about momentum. Momentum has a certain ebb and flow. You’ve seen it at ball games. One team seems to have all the momentum. Everything is going their way. Suddenly, the other team makes a great play and the momentum swings. A recent example of this is Florida State’s come from behind win over Auburn in the BSC National Championship Game.Just as surely as there are momentum swings in athletic events, there are momentum swings in organizations. We are experiencing a positive momentum swing at River of Life. The wind of the Spirit has filled the sails and is propelling the church forward. Having just come through a great year, we are off to a strong start in 2014. In January we were blessed by our fourth consecutive Jesus Sensitive Conference. What a powerful event that was! And this past Sunday night we had quite a celebration at our Annual Business Meeting as we reflected on God’s goodness to us in 2013, and then talked about exciting plans for the coming year.Those plans include several projects to improve and develop our current campus for greater ministry effectiveness. Additionally, in partnership with the ministry of New Horizons, we are launching a new weekly outreach to the Rosemary neighborhood in Bonita Springs. The launch date is Sunday, September 7th. Dean Niforatos from the Jesus Sensitive Conference will be with us that weekend as we kick off this exciting new ministry. Leadership guru’s say you have to GO with the MO. God is moving. We have momentum. Now let’s go with it. It’s time!

Have you ever experienced the condition called writer’s block? It’s a scary phenomenon where a writer loses (temporarily or even permanently) the ability to produce new work. Some call it a creativity blockage; the end of invention. The writer thus afflicted cannot come up with a new idea to save their life! Or they are so overwhelmed with ideas they don’t know where to start.Many writers have been known to struggle with this literary disorder, including F. Scott Fitzgerald – author of The Great Gatsby, and Charles Schulz – creator of the comic strip Peanuts.I wonder if Moses ever experienced writer’s block. Apparently not! He wrote the first five books of the Old Testament and even contributed the 90th Psalm. When he wasn’t out fighting giants or attending to matters of state, David found time to compose seventy-three psalms. Solomon was a prolific writer. Attributed to Solomon are 3,000 proverbs (many of which are recorded in the Book of Proverbs), 1005 songs (his most famous being the Song of Solomon), plus the Book of Ecclesiastes. He also contributed two psalms!And then there was Luke. Though he wrote only two books (Luke & Acts), Luke provided the most literary content of all New Testament writers. The apostle John wrote five books – four that bear his name plus the Book of Revelation. And of course, there was the apostle Paul – author of thirteen New Testament epistles (or 14 if you want to count Hebrews).From the looks of it, none of the writer’s suffered much from writer’s block. One of these authors provided this explanation, “For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21). These writers were not ordinary writers, and the Book they wrote is no ordinary Book. Though the writers are all dead and gone, the Book they wrote is very much alive! So having read this brief article that began with me staring at a blank computer screen frozen in place with a temporary case of writer’s block, I encourage you to pick up your Bible and start reading. It really is an amazing Book!

The Old Testament book of Job records the historical narrative of a man of God who lost nearly everything in one day. Job not only survived the ordeal but maintained his spiritual equilibrium as well. Like Paul, he kept the faith!Job’s secret of success is found in his initial statement made in Job 1:21. Upon learning of the tragedy that took his earthly possessions and family, Job worshipped God saying,“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”From Job 1:20-22 we learn how to respond as people of faith when God takes away.1) Keep the right perspectiveJob recognized the fact that he entered the world with nothing, and he would leave the world with nothing. Everything we have in this life is on loan from God. Whatever you have, the Lord gave it to you. Furthermore, His gifts are given for a season. Maintaining the right perspective sustains us through times of loss. It reminds me that whatever it was I lost, it wasn’t mine in the first place. It all belongs to God. It was His to give, and it was His to take.2) Continue to praise the LordThat’s what Job did. No matter what happens, there are two facts you can always hold on to. Fact #1 – God is good! Even when circumstances argue to the contrary, remember that God is good. Fact #2 – God works all things for our good! That truth is easy to remember when God gives; it’s vitally important to remember when God takes away. Romans 8:28 reminds us that even in the down moments of life God is working all things for our ultimate good.3) Don’t ever blame GodJob 1:22 tells us that Job resisted the temptation to get mad and blame God. Sadly, Job’s wife fell into the blame-game trap. We forget that she suffered the loss right along with her husband. While Job determined to trust God in his pain, his wife decided to blame God. The blame quickly turned to bitterness and she told Job, “Curse God and die!”Sometimes God gives. Sometimes He takes away. In both times He is the same God who loves you with an everlasting love and has your ultimate good at heart. Like Job, keep the right perspective. Continue to praise Him. Trust Him at all times, and He will bring you through!Pastor Todd Weston

“There is nothing new under the sun,” was the observation of Solomon (Ecc. 1:9). Was he ever right! The book of Genesis tells the story of the failed Tower of Babel project. This was mankind’s futile attempt to build a world without God. Seeing what they were up to, the Lord simply pushed the “confuse their language” button in heaven and the people soon abandoned the project.That was in the beginning. But since there is nothing new under the Sun, humanity is destined to make the same mistake twice. The book of Revelation records mankind’s final attempt to build a world without God. This time it will be the notorious one-world government of the Antichrist. But this last world empire is doomed to fail, which it will.In between those two colossal fiascos are the similar repeated attempts of individual people to construct their world without God. Call them atheists, or agnostics, or just self-centered. Whatever the label, the rejection of God is the same. With those of Luke 19:14 they cry out, “We will not have this man (God) reign over us.”But does life work without God? The answer is an emphatic “NO” and God gave a visual illustration of this in our Solar System. For centuries it was believed that our Solar System was geocentric; that is, it revolved around the Earth. Then along came a guy named Nicolai Copernicus who dared to propose that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center. Rather than being geocentric, Copernicus argued that our Solar System is heliocentric. Earth isn’t the center of it all; the Sun is!There is a lesson to be learned here. The psalmist said, “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).The very heavens testify that we are not the center of things. Just as the Solar System works with the Sun as its center, so life works when Jesus Christ the Son is at the center. The ruins of the Tower of Babel, the smoldering ashes of the future one-world government, not to mention the strewn wreckage that follows godless living all stand as timeless warnings that life without God at the center doesn’t work. So look and learn! As we stand at start of a brand new year, put God at the center of your world. Be Christ-centric. Let it all revolve around Him.Pastor Todd Weston